BBC CHEVY 402 427 454 HP KING ROD BEARINGS CR-808-HP-.010 UNDER

Product Information

KING HIGH PERFORMANCE ROD BEARINGS FOR BBC CHEVY .010 UNDER SIZE 396 402 427 454 502 ENGINES, AND MANY MORE.

FILE PHOTO. ACTUAL APPEARANCE MAY VARY.

The HP line of King bearings is a much higher grade of bearing compared to the SI line that King offers. These are used exclusively on all 4340 forged cranks, as well as the cast nodular style crank. As you may know, Clevite offers a high end line of bearings known as the Clevite 77 (Performance) series. King's HP line is competitor to the 77 series. The King HP series has addressed any and all needs that the serious racer demands. Excellent for street use and extreme high horse power applications. Below are a few of the differences of the HP line vs. the regular line of King bearings. The builders of extreme high performance engines are all familiar with this product, and have used them for many years.

Do understand that if you're going to be running a 4340 forged crankshaft, you MUST use a high performance bearing due to the radius where the journal meets the counterweight. You cannot use the low cost bearings on these type cranks. You can use this the HP line on the lower cost cast cranks if you desire.

The HP in the part number denotes the high performance series, and the SI bearings are the regular line of bearings offered by King. As mentioned above, you must use this series of bearing when using a 4340 forged crankshaft, and you can use the HP series with any cast nodular crank.

THE BENEFITS OF USING KING ENGINE BEARINGS

Tri-metal vs. Bi-metal Bearings

Traditional rod and main bearing construction is based upon a three layer configuration composed of a steel backing, a copper-lead layer and a very thin overlay of babbitt material only .0005" - .0008" thick.

Alecular material is used exclusively by King. It is an alloy of aluminum, tin, copper and several other elements. Because it is an alloy, it maintains its properties throughout its entire depth, delivering consistent and reliable performance.

Benefit No.1 - Particle Embedability

More than half of engine bearing failures are caused by metallic particles which scratch crank journals and tear or weaken thin babbitt overlays such as in the tri-metal bearing.

Since King’s Alecular bearing layer is much thicker than the babbitt overlay (.015" vs. .0008"), it provides eighteen (18) times more embedability than a tri-metal bearing to catch and hold particles so they don’t scratch the crank journals. This is especially true for particles over .0004" in diameter which cause most of the damage.

Benefit No. 2 - Conformability

The much thicker layer of Alecular bearing material (.015" vs. .0008") allows the bearing to conform to problems such as metal to metal contact when there is mis-alignment present or the connecting rods stretch. Greater conformability means fewer bearing failures.

Benefit No. 3 - Temperature Resistance

The Alecular material’s melting/fatigue point is over 11000 F, almost three times that of the thin babbitt overlay in a tri-metal bearing (400OF). This means added protection against localized overheating due to mis-alignment, detonation, overloading, loss of coolant, etc.

Benefit No. 4 - High Load Capacity

Alecular bearings successfully withstand the stresses of blown, nitro-methane burning Top Fuel dragsters generating 5,000 hp at 8,000 rpm and in 700 hp circle track engines running for extended periods of time. The same metallurgical alloy is used in King’s street bearings that is used in King’s High Performance bearings, so the regular bearing user gets the advantage of the alloy developed and used in race engines.

Benefit No. 5 - Control of Wall Tolerance

Bearing-to-journal clearances on main and connecting rod bearings can be affected by several variables, all of which the engine builder must try to control. King has removed concerns about inconsistent shell to shell bearing wall thickness by the use of statistical control methods to keep wall thickness to very limited variation.

Other manufacturers produce bearings whose wall thickness at the crown can vary by up to + .00025". King bearings are produced using "Bull's Eye" specs which set a higher standard of controlling the wall thickness, permitting no more than + .00010" variation of the desired thickness.

The benefits of tight control of wall thickness tolerance are:

Improved consistency of bearing to journal clearance. No more trying different bearings within a set to get the "right" fit.

Superior eccentricity and crush relief values for a better oil "wedge" and less journal wear.

Less taper across the bearing face, meaning superior wall stability, a more parallel wall and better oil film development.

Crankshaft grinder does not need to grind cranks "fat" or "thin" to compensate for bearing variations.

Benefit No. 6 - Crankshaft Endplay

All bearing companies solve crankshaft journal wear by supplying oversized bearings. However, King went two steps further with the development of Max Flange and Pro Flange. Max Flange reduces endplay by supplying the flange on the high side of the tolerance to compensate for crankshaft thrust surface wear; this process is used on all King bearings. Pro Flange are bearing sets supplied with oversized flanges allowing the thrust surface to be ground to .010", .020", or .030" undersize.